


Cut Through The Clouds

by killingmonsterswritingthings



Series: 10 Days of LawLu 2017 [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: 10 days of LawLu, Gen, Gods, M/M, Stargazing, discussion of religion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 22:12:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11022627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killingmonsterswritingthings/pseuds/killingmonsterswritingthings
Summary: It's a clear night on the Sunny, and Law and Luffy do some stargazing when Law arrives to relieve Luffy on watch.





	Cut Through The Clouds

**Author's Note:**

> hello and welcome to another round of 10 days of lawlu
> 
> written for the first prompt, May 28 - S is for… **Stars** in my case ;)  
>  stargazing is starting to become part of my Brand™ so here we are  
> (complete with only half-researched astronomy bc i haven't been at an observatory in years, so correct me if i got anything wrong pls)

 

 

Luffy only had two modes – awake forever, or asleep by sundown.

Tonight he had opted for the second, still awake way past midnight. He had been the one to draw first watch and Law, his relief when he was present on the Sunny, arrived to find Luffy sitting on the lawn deck.

“Weren’t you supposed to keep watch up in the crow’s nest?” he asked, amused. It was no surprise to find Luffy down here, although he usually sat on the figurehead to watch the waters ahead of them.

“I did,” Luffy said, looking up at him. “But it was boring, and it gets smelly up there because it’s also the gym, and the night was so clear with so many stars, so I decided to come down here to be able to see the whole sky.”

Law sat down next to him. It _was_ a very clear night, no clouds in sight, which was a rarity, and the moon had been reduced to a crescent, making the stars stand out even more.

“You don’t see lights like this in towns,” Law said. “Only in isolated places – or on the sea.”

“Oh, yeah, I noticed that,” Luffy said and nodded. “When I was in the village there were always less stars, and in Alabasta you could seem the so well in the desert but once we got to Alubarna they were always concealed.”

“It’s the light,” Law explained. “The more light there is from down here, the less we can see the stars through it. But out here, there is no other light sources...”

“There’s only the sea,” they said at the same time and Luffy giggled.

Law grinned. “So we can see them better,” he finished.

Luffy let himself fall back and his back hit the ground with a soft thud. “They have names, right?” he asked. “Some of them?”

“They do,” Law said and while he was still debating if he should lay down too, Luffy’s hand shot up and pulled him down next to him. He gave a small “oof” but didn’t protest.

Luffy pointed to the sky. “Which one is that?” he asked. Law couldn’t tell which one of the stars in the cluster he was pointing to, and he wasn’t even sure any of those had a name. If so, he didn’t know it.

“You never learned how to navigate by the stars, didn’t you?” Laws asked. It didn’t matter much out here on the Grand Line anyway – it loved to play tricks on you – but it was mind-boggling with how little preparation Luffy had set sail, when he had been planning to do it for years.

“Nope,” Luffy grinned. “Ace and Shanks both showed me the North Star or whatever but I couldn’t remember where it was.”

“In the north,” Law said drily.

“Oh haha,” Luffy said and punched him in the shoulder. “But if you don’t know where north is you’re supposed to find that star so you know the directions, right? But there’s so many stars, I can never remember _which one_ it is.”

Law laughed quietly, rubbing his shoulder. It only ached dully, so used to Luffy’s punches and way of showing affection by now. “Fair enough, I’m sorry. You’re right.”

“So, which one is it?” Luffy asked.

“That one,” Law said and pointed to it. It was hard to miss, and Law had spent years looking at it to find his way when the Blue Tang’s technical localization equipment and the radar had failed them.

“Ohhh, so shiny,” Luffy said.

“That’s Venus,” Law said and pointed to the bright spot to the left of the waning crescent moon. Then Luffy’s hand was on his, presumably to trace the direction he was pointing in to see better. Law slowly let their hands fall together until he was pointing at something just above the horizon. “And that’s Mercury. Although neither of them are stars, they’re planets actually.”

“How?” Luffy sounded breathless with wonder and he threaded their fingers together distractedly. “They’re so bright.”

“They reflect the light of the sun, I think. You really should ask Nami-ya about this, she probably knows a lot more than me.”

“She’s not here though,” Luffy said.

“Because she’s asleep,” Law said drily and Luffy laughed.

This was probably the longest he had stayed still in a while when not asleep.

“She has that telescope thing upstairs in the gym but I couldn’t figure out how to use it on the sky properly,” Luffy said. “Do you know?”

“I think I could figure it out, yes,” Law said. His focus had been on microscopes for the longest time, looking down instead of up, but he had worked a telescope once or twice in his childhood, and the principle for looking at the stars couldn’t be much different from a regular long glass to observe the seas.

Luffy jumped up then, effectively pulling Law to his feet with him, although his arm stretched a little. Law really should have expected this. “Come on then!” Luffy grinned and was already pulling him towards the foremast and the rigging that led to the crow’s nest.

Law was not a fan of climbing. He preferred either keeping his feet on firm ground or just teleporting himself where he needed to go, but it was late, and he was tired, and the breeze felt better on his skin the higher they got. (And maybe he also knew that Luffy would catch him if he fell.)

 

 

They finally made it up into the crow’s nest and Law had to agree that it did smell a little of sweat. He sighed and pushed open two of the windows – they would need one of them for the telescope anyway, and the other was good for fresh air.

Then he went to inspect the telescope. It was already mostly set up, so he would only need to move it to be able to look out of the window and to adjust it to the part of the sky they wanted to inspect.

“What do you want to look at?” he asked Luffy.

“That one planet… you called it Mercury?”

“Ah,” Law made and went to peer through the telescope, then adjusted the angle until he found the planet. “There it is.”

“Let me see,” Luffy said excitedly and Law took a step back so Luffy could look through the telescope. “Ohhhh pretty. Can we get any closer?”

Law almost had to laugh again. “Unfortunately not. It’s extremely far away.”

“How far?”

“I don’t even know. But much farther than home.”

“That’s ridiculous, home is right here,” Luffy said earnestly, his eye still pressed to the telescope. Law blinked. There was always another surprise on the horizon with Luffy.

“North Blue or East Blue then,” Law said. “And much much further away than the moon. It’s so far away, probably no one is ever going to be able to touch it.”

“Hmm,” Luffy made and finally drew back from the telescope to look at Law, “if I wasn’t already going to be the pirate king, I would go to space.”

Law grinned and settled on the window sill. “Of course you would.”

Luffy joined him, although he hung almost his entire upper body out of the window, craning up his neck to look at the sky. “Does the name have a meaning? Mercury?”

“It’s the name of a god people used to believe in,” Law said. “He was the guardian deity of messengers, travelers and thieves. I guess we like naming things that are far away after people who are far away – like gods.”

“You think gods are just people?”

“Hm,” Law made, “do you want the long answer or the short answer?”

“I’m probably going to zone out, but give me the long answer,” Luffy said and finally settled on the windowsill himself, his knees drawn up to his chest and chin resting on his knees. It looked a little precarious, even though Law knew that he wouldn’t sustain any injuries even if he fell.

“I believed in a god once,” Law said. “It was how I was brought up, and even after my entire town died and all the buildings were laid to waste and everything happened with Cora-san and Doflamingo… I was angry, but I still believed. But gradually, I lost that. I thought: how could a god let something like this happen if he existed? And if there was a wrathful god, who enjoyed seeing his children suffer, then I didn’t want to believe in him.”

Luffy had scrunched his face up, but nodded – as much as he could, with his head on his knees.

“I’m sure other people would have drawn comfort from a god if they had been all alone. But not me. I was angry, and I was disillusioned, and I had seen more horror and death than any child ever should,” Law said. “So I stopped believing. I met Bepo not soon after, and soon I didn’t need to believe anymore, because there was whole world out there that was much richer – and much more cruel – than any god ever could be. I had a mission.”

Luffy was still looking at him expectantly and Law felt encouraged. He had never talked about his faith like this, because it had never felt relevant. He had gone through his skepticism and eventual refusal quietly at the time.

“So yes, I think that people believe in gods and higher powers so they can blame someone for the shortcomings of other people, or the government, or the world, or themselves. Gods are just people, which is why people can both believe in gods, and believe to be gods.”

“I met someone like that once,” Luffy said, grimacing in disgust.

Law gave a half-smile and looked back out onto the sea, and then up into the sky. “Now the stars… I can see them. I can’t touch them, but I know they’re there. They’re real.”

“We can never be lonely,” Luffy said. Law looked at him and raised his eyebrows.

“Why’s that?” he asked. He had experienced his fair share of loneliness.

“Well, for one, we have our nakama,” Luffy said, “and even when they’re not there, we have the stars.”

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!!
> 
> the title is from carly rae jepsen's [cut to the feeling](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlsu7RhOnsQ)
> 
> come visit me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/luffylaws) (shhh i know i currently look like a football twitter, my team won the cup for the first time in 5 years) and [tumblr](https://leiathelight.tumblr.com), or leave me a comment!


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